


College

by waterpots



Category: Oh My Girl (Band)
Genre: College AU, F/F, High School AU, high school/college au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 13:51:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8982535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterpots/pseuds/waterpots
Summary: Jiho leaves for college, Arin is the only one left.





	

**Author's Note:**

> [5/30/17] HELLO!! oh my girl fic exchange!! https://ohmygirlexchange.dreamwidth.org/6570.html
> 
> Jirin because everything died on ASC how amzing. Write more Oh My Girl fanfiction. Seriously. Write stuff. I'll read it. I've got nothing to do anyway.

“It’s only been three months. All of us left for three months, and you were okay with that,” YooA said. The two were talking through a video message site, YooA being a few cities away at college. Arin let out a long breath of air, resting her head down on her desk.

“We’ve only talked three times,” Arin said, scrunching her face up, a gesture unseen through the webcam. “And one of them she spent the whole time talking about something with her roommate, Binnie.”

YooA hummed thoughtfully, before her side went completely silent. Arin lifted her head curiously, only to be greeted by the back of YooA’s head on her screen, the older girl talking with her roommate.

“You muted me!” Arin exclaimed, doing her best to glare at her. YooA’s head shot around and she unmuted Arin, already laughing.

“Sorry, sorry, I was just trying to explain the situation to Mimi,” she said. Mimi, YooA’s roommate and longtime friend, moved forward from her side of the room so she was close to the webcam, resting one of her hands on the back of YooA’s chair and the other on her desk.

“Hey Arin, how’s school?” Mimi asked. YooA slipped one of the earbuds out of her ear and handed it to Mimi, who put it in her ear before Arin replied.

“It’s okay. Some of my classes are really boring, and it’s weird not having you guys around,” Arin said.

“Break’s soon, so you just have to hold out for a little longer,” Mimi replied, grinning at Arin. Arin did her best to match the grin, but it didn’t mask how she really felt.

“It would just be nice to talk to her a little,” Arin said, sighing. “I know I’m going to miss her, and I know it’s inevitable we’re not going to be on the same schedule, but I it feels like she doesn’t care.”

“Oh, this is about Jiho?” Mimi asked jokingly. “Here I thought you missed all of us.”

“No it’s-”

“It’s different,” Mimi cut her off, laughing. “We know, we get it. Isn’t it about time you just told her?”

“True,” YooA agreed. “You guys have known each other your entire lives. Isn’t it sort of weird she has no idea?”

“You don’t know how hard it is to tell her,” Arin groaned, laying her head against her desk again.

“What, starstruck in front of her?” Mimi laughed again at her own joke.

“More like dragged around so much I can’t think about anything besides not falling.” Mimi and YooA both laughed. “I’m serious. It’s like the second she sees me she remembers ten things we have to do right then immediately.” Arin was supposed to be complaining, but she felt herself smiling as she explained it to them.

“I’m sure she’s just been busy with classes. She’s taking a lot of her difficult requirements this semester,” YooA reasoned.

“True. I saw her at the library over the weekend and she looked stressed to Hell and back,” Mimi agreed with a nod.

“It’ll all work out, I’m sure,” YooA said. Arin tried her best to put herself into a positive mindset and smiled back at the two, nodding.

* * *

“Dude, it’s four in the morning.” Jiho made a noise, letting Mimi know she was aware of her, but didn’t move her eyes from scanning the paper in front of her. “I left you at six to get dinner. Please tell me you haven’t been here the whole time.”

“I haven’t been here the whole time.” Jiho said. She was in the library, sitting on the first floor where students were allowed to talk, spreading herself out over an entire table that normally fit six people. The library was sparsely populated in the morning, so Jiho had the place to herself.

“Is that the truth?” Jiho stayed silent, flipping the page over. Mimi sighed. “You’ve been studying nonstop; that’s not good for you, you know.”

“Yeah, we learned that in my nutrition class it’s,” Jiho gestured to the pile of papers scattered in front of her. “Somewhere in here.”

“Aren’t you a liberal arts student? Why are you taking nutrition? That’s a nursing requirement?”

“Gen ed,” Jiho answered simply. “Listen, if you’re not here to explain phonology to me then I really don’t need you here.”

“Art major, but nice try,” Mimi said with a laugh. Jiho grunted in response. “Jiho,” Mimi reached over Jiho, closing the binder on the girl, who finally looked up at her, letting out a disgruntled noise. “You’ve been staring at the same page for an hour, I bet.” Jiho frowned, proving Mimi right. “Coffee can only help with so much.”

“Fine.” Jiho sighed. “I won’t study and I won’t ace my classes and lose my scholarship and fail out, are you happy?”

“Yes. I’m a studio art major I want everyone to be as poor as me.” Jiho leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms over her chest. “I know you’re all smart and studious and I’m happy when I get a seventy, but why have you been putting so much effort into college? This is too much.”

“I have to maintain scholarships.”

“It’s like a 2.0 gpa to maintain scholarships, you’re going towards like a 4.0.” Jiho gave Mimi a weary looking, letting out another sigh. Mimi waited, letting Jiho talk.

“I’ve,” she paused. “I’ve been thinking about switching majors.” Mimi raised an eyebrow, frowning curiously. “I’ve just been thinking and I mean, forensics is cool and all but, is that really worth spending my whole life on?”

“To what?” Jiho returned Mimi’s curious look. “Would you switch to? What’s your plan?”

“I was thinking, I don’t know, Japanese? I mean, I already know a lot so I figured I could just solidify it? And then, communications or global relations or something. I could study in Japan for a bit and then work abroad or something.”

Mimi nodded. “And is that why you haven’t been talking to Arin?”

“I just, she thought I was so cool majoring in science and having my life together. I really don’t want her to know how stressed I’ve been or how many all-nighters I’ve pulled, or the fact I have no idea what I’m doing at all.”

“Do you want to know what I think?”

“Do I have the choice of saying no?” Jiho asked, finally cracking a smile.

“No,” Mimi replied, matching Jiho’s grin. “I think you should focus more on what’s going on right now. The future’ll be there later. Right now is what’s important.”

“That’s easy for you to say, your future plans are just to wake up and not die every day. I actually want to do something with my life.” Mimi laughed good-naturedly.

“I’m doing pretty great at my future plans, though. I’ve never disappointed myself.” Jiho nodded, still smiling, grabbing the binder off of the table and putting it into her bag. “Arin was video messaging YooA earlier this week.”

“Oh, is she- How-”

“You should focus on right now,” Mimi said again, standing to leave. “She’s busy growing and maturing and you’re busy drinking coffee and stunting yourself. She’s going to end up taller than you at this rate.” Jiho huffed again, standing to follow Mimi.

“It’s a ten-minute walk back to my dorm,” Jiho started awkwardly, the two making their way out of the library together. “There isn’t a chance I could stay with you and YooA tonight, is there?”

“Not a chance, we’ve been marathoning the Harry Potter movies and she’s trying to analyze Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s relationship to death.”

“That sounds more like something Binnie and I would do than the two of you.”

“It is finals season; everyone gets as weird as you two.” Jiho pushed Mimi, scowling again.

\--

Arin slid down in her seat, letting out a tired sigh. School break was always a blessing, but those last few days beforehand were full of tests and papers and her stupid science project which involved too much thinking and not enough time. It was finally over, thankfully. She still had a week until the college students came home, meaning she would mostly be around her friends from class or alone. It wasn’t a bad thing, but her friends from class could be a bit-well.

“Heelys,” Yeri said, glancing her eyes across the small group of people surrounding her desk. Arin sat next to Yeri, so thankfully she didn’t have to stand and move to join in the on the conversation and could just lean back and mostly tune it out. “All in favor say ‘ay,’ all opposed please leave.”

“This is the greatest news I’ve heard all week,” Jane said, grinning.

“I would vote for light up shoes, but Heelies are fine,” Eunchae said, leaning her elbow on Arin’s desk.

“Someone talk some sense into her, I’m not buying those,” Tzuyu groaned, turning around to face Yeri. “Suhyun?”

“I’m okay with it,” Suhyun said with a shrug. “I helped her find the site to buy adult sizes so we can actually get some.” Tzuyu sighed and waved her arm non-committedly towards Yeri, resigning herself to her fate.

“It’s a great idea because we’ll travel the school in style and they’re Heelys so there’s not a bad part of that concept.”

“What do you think Arin?” Eunchae asked, turning the group to her. Arin had barely been paying attention, feeling uncomfortable under the sudden scrutiny.

“I guess it’s fine,” Arin said with a shrug. The answer satisfied Yeri, who turned back towards Suhyun and Jane to work out logistics.

“Are you okay?” Eunchae asked, turning in her desk more so she was facing Arin directly.

“Yeah, I’ve just been stressed with Jiho being gone,” Arin answered honestly, frowning. “She doesn’t really have much time to talk to me and I’m okay with it, but it gets a little stressful.”

“That’s sort of what happened to Eunjin when Jenny went to college,” Eunchae answered. “Jenny was talking to her less and less and it stressed her out. Turns out she accidentally had joined the occult. Or a cult, I don’t remember. Not that Jiho would join a cult! Although, maybe…” Eunchae trailed off awkwardly. “But I get what you mean, it’s been sort of weird with Yebin being gone as well.”

Arin had completely forgotten that Eunchae got what she was talking about, well, partially.

“She took me out on a date, when I went up to visit her. It was really nice to see her college and that sort of stuff,” Eunchae said, smiling. Arin smiled back, but mentally lamented her own self-imposed situation. If she’d been more honest about how she’d felt about Jiho, maybe she wouldn’t be stuck in this situation.

“Arin!” A student across the classroom got her attention from listening to Eunchae talk about her date.” “There’s someone outside for you,” the student said, pointing towards the door. Arin frowned, craning her head to try and see outside the door, but whoever was there was out of site.

Arin moved into the hallway, not thinking too much about it. Students had already dissipated for the most part, her friends choosing to stay behind in order to have their conversation (team meeting, as Yeri referred to it). Only a few other students remained: those who cleaned the classroom and those who used it as their place to do homework before a club activity or a ride home.

There was a girl in the hallway, a few feet away from Arin, awkwardly leaning against the wall when Arin walked out. “Jiho!” It took less than an instant to recognize her, in her large university sweatshirt. She’d definitely lost some weight, Arin was sure, and she had dark circles under her eyes, but she was unmistakably Jiho.

She looked up, giving Arin an apologetic smile, but her expression quickly turned to shock when Arin ran forward, hugging the girl tightly. “You said you weren’t coming home until the end of the week!”

“I sort of lied,” Jiho said, hugging Arin back. “Sorry. I wanted to surprise you.”

“It’s okay!” Arin pulled back, a beaming smile on her face. “I’m supposed to go out with Yeri and all of them, but it’s fine I’ll tell them I can’t.”

“No, it’s okay,” Jiho said, releasing Arin and shaking her arms in front of herself. “We can after, you should go out with them.”

“No. You came all this way early I’m hanging out with you. Plus,” Arin lowered her voice like it was a secret, even though they were the only two in the hallway. “They’ve been talking about getting Heelys and I’m not really sure how I feel about it yet and I don’t really want to listen to them talk about it right now.”

“Damn,” Jiho mumbled. “Yeri always has the best ideas.” Arin pulled Jiho’s arm, pulling the girl into the classroom where her friends were engaged in a heated debate, probably about the shoes judging on the glares Yeri and Tzuyu were giving each other.

“Hey, Jiho’s back so I won’t be hanging out with you guys today!” Arin called, pulling Jiho with her into the room. Eunchae beamed at the the two, giving them a thumbs up.

“Wait!” Yeri called before the two could leave. “Heely’s, yes or no?”

“Okay bye Yeri!” Arin called back, beelining for the door.

“You already know my opinion you small, brilliant genius,” Jiho shouted to Yeri, before Arin completely pulled her out the door.

Jiho trailed behind Arin, still a little nervous. Arin seemed happy to see her, at least on the surface, but Jiho still had this fear in the back of her mind that Arin was angry and annoyed, although justifiably so. “Arin?” Jiho said, stopping. Arin finally stopped, turning to look at Jiho, still holding her hand. “You’re not mad?”

“About what?”

“About me being gone for like, three months? And not really talking to you? And that time I muted you so Binnie and I could talk about our assignment for our history class? Also, unrelated, do you want to hear about the origin of the cotton gin?”

“Not really to the last one,” Arin said. She took a step towards Jiho. “I don’t want to upset you, but I also I don’t want to lie to you. Mimi told me what you were going through-”

“I’m going to kill her,” Jiho groaned.

“She didn’t tell me the whole of it, but that you were struggling with some stuff and you were afraid how I would respond to it. She also told me to tell you, and this is a quote, ‘if you don’t tell her everything by the time I’m back I will wring your neck and then resurrect you and kill you again.’ Quite frankly I don’t know what that means but good luck!”

“I-” Jiho started, but cut herself off, flabbergasted a bit by the end.

“If you were stressed about something, you could have told me.”

“I didn’t want you to be embarrassed by me. You were gloating to all your friends about my cool major and how I was going to get a job after graduating and I wasn’t sure how to tell you I didn’t really know what I was doing.” Arin gave Jiho a reassuring smile, rubbing her thumb over the top of Jiho’s hand.

“I’ll tell you what,” Arin said, tugging on Jiho’s arm a little so the two were walking in step together, starting towards the exit. “We’ll go and get food and you can tell me everything going on with you and I can tell you all the reasons I still think you’re cool. That breakfast place you like started serving all day, so we don’t have to rush.”

* * *

Mimi shuffled around her dorm room, moving books onto her desk to clear properly in the morning. Her and YooA swore they’d clean their dorm before finals tomorrow, and pack some of their stuff before they got completely dazed in the particulars of their classes. Instead they’d gotten completely absorbed in studying and completely forgot that they lived somewhere.

Mimi tapped YooA on the shoulder softly, the girl having fallen asleep on her desk. “No mom I don’t want to,” YooA mumbled groggily, still clearly half asleep.

“It’s Mimi.” YooA slung her arm over Mimi’s shoulder, pressing her head into Mimi’s cheek, not entirely sure where she was. Mimi used their position to help YooA stand, the two taking a few staggering steps until they reached YooA’s bed. Mimi tried her best to carefully get YooA to lie down, but she flopped down lazily before Mimi could do anything.

“The- League of Nations,” YooA mumbled, starting to recite something she’d been studying.

“Let’s sleep for now,” Mimi said, patting her hair. “You can tell me about it tomorrow.”

“No it’ll be dissolved tomorrow,” YooA grumbled back, but turned over in the bed, almost immediately falling asleep.

Mimi sighed, smiling at YooA’s back and turning to her own bed, moving the last of her books from her bed to her desk. She grabbed her phone, shutting off the lights and checking it one last time before succumbing to sleep herself.

 _Thanks_ , was the only text she had received, from Jiho. Mimi pondered it for a moment, not entirely sure what it meant, but shrugged it off and decided she could figure it out in the morning when her main focus wasn’t the specifics of pointillism.


End file.
